As light oil reserves are gradually being depleted and the costs of development (e.g., lifting, mining, and extraction) of heavy oil resources have decreased, a need has arisen to develop novel upgrading technologies to convert heavy oils and bitumens into lighter products. The “bottom of the barrel”, or high boiling range material (i.e., vacuum residue) from crude oil, is difficult to convert into lighter products via conventional processes. Thus, what is needed are new technologies that achieve 90-100% conversion of vacuum residue, which would offer significant promise in resolving the problems associated with the disposition of large amounts of vacuum residue.